The Common Scientific Outline (CSO) is a classification system organized around six broad areas of scientific interest in cancer research:
- Biology;
- Etiology;
- Prevention;
- Early Detection, Diagnosis, and Prognosis;
- Treatment;
- Cancer Control, Survivorship, and Outcomes Research.
The Cancer Type coding scheme complements the Common Scientific Outline (CSO) classification system and is linked to the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases (ICD).
Both schemes are maintained by the International Cancer Research Partnership. Together, these tools lay a framework for improving coordination among research organizations, making it possible to compare and contrast the research portfolios of public, non-profit, and governmental research agencies. The types and codes are not provided by ICRP directly; a training set has been used to build the matching model and to assign a code to all document types in Dimensions.
(Not all versions of Dimensions have these categorisation systems available for use).